CLOSE SHAVE WITH AN ALPINE TORNADO – RED FEATHER LAKES, CO (MAY 2014)

This is a bit of a personal safety share. My family and I made plans for the long Memorial Day weekend to head up to Bellaire Lake, a few miles south of the popular camping and fishing in and around Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. I drove up to the Red Feather Lakes area (above 9,000 ft) with the intention of reserving a campsite in advance of the busy holiday weekend, then heading home that night, only to return the following day with the rest of the Spurlin clan. Not a horrible idea... it was first-come-first-serve and we didn't want to make the trek up into the mountains for the weekend without a sure bet. Here's a photo of the pay campsite shortly after I arrived with black storm clouds a brewin' in the background.

Campsite before the tornado.

After setting up the tent, initially marble-sized hail began pummelling the campground. After fifteen minutes, I drove the car up into the forest and parked between two large Ponderosa Pines for some shelter from the pelting hail. At that point, the hail turned golf ball-sized and continued to pelt the car for another fifteen minutes. The sound of hail hitting the car was deafening and all I could do was cover my ears. The shelter provided by the thin tree canopy was the only reason my windshield didn't crack. My mirror assembly on the driver's side had blown apart and it was clear that the Outback wound't be driving away without some nasty scars.

 

I called my wife, Jen, and chatted with her about what was happening to the car and that I might be a little behind schedule that evening. Looking to the south, I could see a distinct wall cloud, but didn't bother mentioning it. Within five minutes, the winds picked up violently and began shaking the car. One of the 2-foot diameter, 100-year old Ponderosa Pines that I had parked between, just a few feet to the right of my car, suddenly uprooted and I watched it tip over... luckily in the opposite direction of my car. I found myself staring out of the passenger window at the tree roots and immediately started the car, threw it in reverse, and parked in the middle of the nearby open field, clear of falling trees. Then it happened...

The tornado ripped through the campground and flattened several hundred trees, passing just behind my campsite and looping back around into the main campground. Sitting in the open field, my car was lifted off the ground several times on the driver's side (upwind side). It was all over in a matter of minutes. My tent had been ripped up from the stakes and tossed into the forest (see the background of the first image below).

Afterward, the campground host drove up and after checking to make sure I was safe, he asked if I’d seen his golf cart that was parked at the entrance to the campground. Apparently, the tornado picked it up and carried it off somewhere into the Roosevelt National Forest.

Fuck tornadoes.